Thick as Thieves
by blood-guts-angelcake14
Summary: Takes place during the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. DJ meets a woman who is as good of a thief as he is in Canto Bight. They both are thrown in the jail cell together, and an unexpected alliance begins.
1. Chapter 1

Charlotte reapplied her scarlet red lipstick, and quickly finished her bourbon, loudly slamming the empty glass on the bathroom's marble countertop. Warmth from the liquor slowly warmed her insides. She fluffed her chocolate brown hair and pulled the sides of her tight, black cocktail dress down.

She left the ornate bathroom and slowly reentered the casino letting the cigarette smoke engulf her, and approached her target: Edward Nicodemus. She had been eyeing him all night, and had memorized every single one of his features. The stubble on his cheeks, his slicked back dark brown hair, his perfectly tailored pin stripe suit, and his red pocket square embroidered with his initials, "EN."

Before she had even approached him, she already decided she absolutely despised Edward Nicodemus. She hated men like him. This whole city was full of terrible people, but there was always work and easy money here. As soon as she was able to get close enough to him, she would distract him and sneak a flash drive off him that contained valuable information the Resistance sought about a new weapon the First Order has been developing.

She seductively approached the bar, and made sure to come from an angle where he'd surely catch a glimpse of her. She felt his gaze follow her, and she smiled to herself. Men are all the same, she thought, it doesn't matter if they're a supporter of the First Order or the Resistance.

Charlotte sat down on the red plush bar stool, placed her wristlet down, and crossed her ankles neatly. She leaned on the mahogany bar so that her cleavage poured out over the top of her black dress.

The bartender approached her. "What can I get you this evening, ma'am?" "A dirty martini, please, with two olives," she said silkily. The bartender nodded. She could feel Nicodemus' eyes on her the whole time.

She pushed her brown waves back, pulled out a cigarette and took a long drag. She leaned back on her chair, satisfied with her performance. Finally, he broke the silence. "Well, you must be visiting Canto Bight — I surely think I'd remember seeing a woman like you before," Nicodemus said as he let his eyes wander down to her cleavage. Nicodemus moved down the bar to the stool next to her.

He extended his hand, "Edward Nicodemus — and who do I owe the pleasure?" "Claire Sheridan," she murmured reaching her hand out meekly to him. The bartender returned with her drink. "Please put the lady's drink on my bill," Edward said to the bartender, giving her a cheesy grin. Ugh, what a desperate creep, she thought to herself.

"So, Claire, what brings you to Canto Bight?," Edward asked. "Oh, well you know, I just needed to get away from the hustle of Coruscant, you know - relax a bit. Everyday life can just be so … boring," Charlotte said breathily as she leaned on the bar and smiled at Edward simply. "Ah, a Capital girl - I should have known," Edward said with another cheesy grin.

"I see you're a bourbon drinker … let me guess, Old Shipley's?," Charlotte mused with a seductive smirk. Edward looked impressed, "Why yes," he said with clear shock in his voice. Charlotte pretended to look down shyly. Edward made a deep sigh, almost like a moan, "You know, I like you already … say, want to head upstairs, where we can talk a little more privately?," he said with a slight eyebrow raise.

This is going better than I ever thought it would, Charlotte thought, impressed with herself. Edward took her hand, and led her from the bar across the smoky room towards the elevators. This is it, Charlotte thought to herself - once I get these files, I'll finally have my freedom. This last $15,000 is all to finally be able to start my life and forget about Canto Bight.

They were just a few feet away from the elevators when all of a sudden a man came out of nowhere and cut directly in front of them. He stopped Edward, placing his hands on his shoulders near his breast pockets. Edward gave him a suspicious look and stepped back. "Mr. Nicodemus, so s-s-sorry to interrupt, but Mr. Monroe requested a meeting with you immediately — he's in the VIP room at the high stakes blackjack table, he said it's urgent," the man said. "Ugh, is this about our titanium contract again?!," Edward asked frustratedly. "I believe so sir, like I said - it's very urgent," the man responded.

Edward turned to Charlotte, "Claire, go back to the bar - order anything you want, and tell them to put it on my tab. I'll be back as soon as I can," and he squeezed her hand reassuringly before he left.

Charlotte stared in awe, as he walked away. What in the literal fuck just happened, she thought to herself. She turned her attention back to this man, who rudely interrupted her entire plan! She stared at him furiously. For a moment she was paralyzed unable to react and stared at the man, and finally noticed what this stranger actually looked like. He had dark hair tucked under a hat with the message "Don't Join" in-scripted on it, and wore all black underneath a trench coat. He looked quite disheveled, and had tired eyes.

Suddenly, Charlotte's emotions turned from surprised to furious. "Who the fuck are you really?! Clearly you don't actually work here," Charlotte demanded in a harsh, loud whisper. The man smirked at her, and pulled the flash drive out of his trench coat pocket, "L-l-looking for this, dear?"

Charlotte began to lunge at him, but he caught her and stopped her and loudly whispered at her — "Hey! You want us to both get caught and thrown in jail here?! Stop making a scene!" "You think I give a flying fuck what happens to you?! You have no idea what you've just done!," Charlotte yelled.

Immediately, three security guards approached them and grabbed them both by the arms. Without asking any questions they were dragged down a service elevator. All the while, Charlotte went kicking and screaming, while the mysterious man complied with their captors, whistling lazily. At the end of a long, dirty cement hallway, so unlike the rest of the beautiful casino, lied several dank, dark jail cells.

Unceremoniously the guards threw them into a cell and left without acknowledging any of Charlotte's protests. As soon as they were gone, Charlotte again turned to the man. "I am going to kill you!," she screamed banging a fist on the jail cell door. The mysterious man just looked at her and gave a long chuckle.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlotte stared at the man. "Give me that flash drive, or I swear I'll kill you. You have no fucking idea what you're meddling with," Charlotte said in a low voice - almost a growl, she was so angry.

The man slowly began to walk across the cell towards her, "A-a-actually, I _do_ know what I'm messing with. I know who you are. You're scum like me just looking to make some coin off these bozos." By now he was standing a few inches away from her, she finally realized how much taller he was than her. He leaned an arm over her head on the jail cell bar. This close his scent overwhelmed her. He smelled like leather, gasoline, and whiskey, a combination she was surprised she was comforted by.

"I'm nothing like you," Charlotte spit the words out angrily. "Well sugar, you d-d-don't even know me … but I know who you are, Charlotte," he said with a playful glimmer behind his eyes. Him saying her real name made her sharply inhale. She looked at him, knowing he could see the fear in her eyes. "Don't worry d-d-doll, like I said, I'm just like you - I'm only in it for the money. I don't have any ties to the Resistance or the First Order, it's just business. This time I win, next time maybe you will," he said brushing a rogue piece of hair off her face. His rough calloused finger softly grazing her cheek gave her chills all the way down her legs.

"How do you know my name?," she said eyeing him suspiciously. "I overheard a conversation about a master t-t-thief who has been taking all the work here on Canto Bight doing jobs for the Resistance and the First Order, and since someone was taking money from me, I made it my job to find out who you were. Gotta say, I'm impressed. Took me months to figure out who you were. Once I put it together that it was you, I was shocked someone so gorgeous could be causing me to l-l-lose so much money," he said giving her a look that made her weak to her knees.

"I heard from one of my regular clients with the Resistance that Nicodemus was going to have a flash drive with information about the First Order's weapon and that they hired this master thief to steal it off him tonight and they'd be making booka moolah for the job. Since I had already put it together that you were the master thief, I had my eyes on you too, which made for an enjoyable night," he said with a grin licking his lips. She hated this man for screwing over her chance to leave this place, but couldn't help but feel a bit flushed hearing him talk like this about her. "So, I figured, since you've been taking all the high stakes jobs, I needed to do something about it. I mean, a man's gotta eat," he said with a shrug.

Charlotte rolled her eyes, "Well I needed that money for something more important than drinking booze and gambling, you prick." The man studied her, "To hide away on Takodana and forget about how your family left you for dead, right?" Charlotte again sharply inhaled, this time she had to fight tears from welling up in her eyes. "How do you know all of this about me?!," Charlotte demanded. "Like I said missy, I make it my job to find out anything I can about someone that makes me lose m-m-money."

Suddenly, Charlotte became infuriated again with this mystery man and two hand shoved him away from her as she huffed away from him and went to sit on the cement bench at the back of the cell.

"Well, you can be mad at me darling, but you wanna get outta this cell don't 'cha?," he asked. She rolled her eyes at him, and crossed her arms realizing how cold it was in the cell. "Of course dumbass! You're the one that got us in here!," she said sharply. He raised his eyebrows at her and held both hands up at her as if she was about to shoot a gun at him.

Without saying another word he took a card that had been tucked away underneath his hat, turned around and reached his arm through the cell bars and after a few seconds there was a loud click. He lightly pushed on the cell door and it opened freely.

He turned to look at her and with a sly smile he bowed slightly, extending his arm towards the now open cell door, "After you gorgeous." As much as she wanted to smack him, she was impressed and relieved they had a way out. Against all of her common sense she followed the mysterious man's lead, and exited the cell.

He shut the door behind him and offered her his arm. Hesitantly, Charlotte accepted and looped her arm through his. Surprised, he gave her what seemed to be a genuine smile, and patted her hand. "Alright l-l-love, let's get outta this place and get this money from the Resistance," he said with a wink. Even though she rolled her eyes again at him again, she couldn't deny how much his touch made her pulse quicken.


End file.
